Photograph: Chris Hopkinson
“I wanted to make something that comes from nowhere,” says Scottish artist Nathan Coley, as he clambers on to one of his concrete blocks, which form part of the most prominent new public artwork in Britain’s capital, set to be unveiled next month. “They are chunky, abstract, brooding objects that don’t reference anyone or anything. They can be joyful, beautiful and brutal at the same time.”
Coley is better known for his big illuminated signs, but there may be a good reason he didn’t want his sculptures to reference their subject this time. His slabs are the most visible part of the Tideway project, London’s £4.6bn super sewer, built to prevent 18m tonnes of sewage overflowing into the river each year. These enigmatic structures are, in effect, memorials to the era of flushing fecal matter straight into the Thames. “The thing about the super sewer,” Coley says, “is that it’s all hidden. So no one knows where they’re spending all this money. I wanted to make something really exciting to celebrate it.”
August 12, 2025
